α.
OE Latin-Old Eng. Gloss. (Otho E.i) in 21 (1996) 186 Fiscina, cysefæt.
lOE (Corpus Cambr.) xvii. 455 Man sceal habban..dixas, stelmelas, cyfa, cyflas, cyrne, cysfæt.
1272–3 Manorial Documents in (1936) 34 57 (MED) Chesefat.
1318 in D. Yaxley (2003) 41 ij chesefates.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xix. lxxiv. 1333 Chese is ywronge and ypressed in þe chesefat.
a1450 in T. Austin (1888) 36 (MED) Feche þe croddys of þe deye..& lay it on a chesefatte..in lynen cloþe..& leche it.
c1450 Jack Upland's Rejoinder (Digby) l. 351 in P. L. Heyworth (1968) 112 Þy tong likkiþ þe chesefat & þe garner also.
?a1500 Nominale (Yale Beinecke 594) in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker (1884) I. 793/20 Hec sissma, a schesfatte.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach iii. f. 147 The milke commeth to a curd, which is straightwayes put into Formes, or Cheesefattes, and pressed.
a1665 K. Digby (1669) 272 Set some new whey on the fire, put in your Cheese-fat and suter and cloth.
1688 R. Holme iii. viii. 335/1 Thruch them in the Cheese-Fate.
1737 (ed. 2) i. ii. 121 Turn it out of that Cheese-fat.
1763 42 A cheese-fat and cheese-ladder A broken wooden kedar.
1817 W. Scott (1818) II. xiii. 317 That chield's aye for being out o' the cheese-fat he was moulded in.